Published: December 23, 2010

SALUTING the new year huddled around the hearth with family and friends —
bedecked in sequins and plastic “2011” spectacles, spilling warm Champagne on
the sofa — is good, old-fashioned fun. But wouldn’t you rather spend the night
with Patti
Smith?

Matthew Murphy for The New York Times

Eric Gaillard/Reuters

The rock ‘n’ roll legend Chuck Berry will see out the year at
B. B. King.

Whether you’re bidding 2010 a hearty,
don’t-let-the-door-hit-you-on-the-way-out farewell or commemorating its good
tidings, live music is a memorable, often euphoric way to celebrate. At the very
least, dancing your pants off with a room full of like-minded fans is more
energizing than watching a ball sink slowly back to earth (again).

Below, the pop and jazz critics of The New York Times have compiled a
selection of this year’s New
Year’s Eve shows that is as eclectic as the city itself. The band Antibalas
and the cast of “Fela!” are hosting a Felabration in Brooklyn; Ms. Smith (whose
memoir “Just Kids” won a National
Book Award) will close out three nights at the Bowery Ballroom; the
erstwhile jam band Phish
will sprinkle Madison Square Garden with confetti; and Sharon Jones and the
Dap-Kings will join the legendary New Orleans songwriter Allen Toussaint at Best
Buy Theater. Expect exhilarating sets, wobbly renditions of “Auld Lang Syne” and
maybe even a midnight peck from that stranger who knows all the
words.

AMANDITITITA An Amandititita show is a quirky affair — not
just because of the music, which is a cheeky take on traditional Mexican cumbia,
but also because of what she builds around it, which is a stage show befitting a
sharp-minded, eccentric child. She calls herself “La Reina de la Anarcumbia” —
the Queen of Anarchic Cumbia — though she’s not quite anarchic. More like
mischievous, with a keen sense of disruption. With Marcelo C, Ejival and Justin
V. At 9 p.m., Hecho en Dumbo, 354 Bowery; (212) 937-4245; hechoendumbo.com; $75 for dinner,
$95 for party, $150 for both. JON CARAMANICA

STEVE ANGELLO If you only submit to punishment by one
brazen, bombastic, pummeling, house-music maximalist this year, make it Steve
Angello, who’s been a force for almost a decade, but who’s mastered his sound in
the last couple of years: clean, slick, thumping, even a bit arch at times. He’s
also part of the production/D.J. collective Swedish House Mafia, responsible for
one of the year’s best brute-force dance albums, “Until One.” At 9 p.m.,
Roseland Ballroom, 239 West 52nd Street; (212) 247-0200; roselandballroom.com; various
packages from $98.50 to $235. JON CARAMANICA

THE BAD PLUS With “Never Stop” (E1), an exemplary album
released this year, the Bad Plus marked its 10-year anniversary in stout and
unflagging style. The band — Reid Anderson on bass, Ethan Iverson on piano,
David King on drums — has a rugged but supersensitive rapport that can transform
any material it touches. This perennial New Year’s Eve show, which is part of a
weeklong run at the Village Vanguard, seems likely to include “Auld Lang Syne,”
though it could also conceivably mean U2’s
“New Year’s Day.” At 9:30 p.m., Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Avenue South, at
11th Street, West Village; (212) 255-4037; villagevanguard.com; $150. NATE CHINEN

BELLS AT MIDNIGHT A musical event that calls itself a
“ritual/jam” seems like a fittingly transformative way to close out a
complicated year. Beginning around 11:15 p.m., the guitarist Marc Ribot will
lead a pedigreed band (Roy Campbell Jr. on trumpet, Henry Grimes on bass, Chad
Taylor on drums and John
Zorn on saxophone) through a fervent rendition of Albert Ayler’s “Bells,” a
free jazz classic from 1965 that is renowned for its spastic, improvised solos
and repeating marches. A Champagne toast is promised, although the music is
likely to be headier than anything you could ever pour into a glass. At 11 p.m.,
the Stone, Avenue C and Second Street, East Village; thestonenyc.com; $40. AMANDA
PETRUSICH

CHUCK
BERRY The embodiment of his mythical Johnny B. Goode, Chuck Berry
had rock ’n’ roll figured out from its inception: an R&B backbeat, some
country twang, a signature guitar lick and songs about cars, girls and the
gumption to tell Beethoven
to roll over. More than half a century later, he’s still on the road. At 8 and
11 p.m., B. B. King Blues Club and Grill, 243 West 42nd Street, Manhattan; (212)
997-4144; bbkingblues.com; 8 p.m.
show, $98 advance, $100 at door, $560 for a four-person V.I.P. table; at 11 p.m.
$120, $640 for a four-person VIP table. JON PARELES

BLACK 47 In Black 47, a band named after the worst year of
Ireland’s 19th-century great potato famine, the jigs and reels of immigrant
Irish tradition plunge into New York City’s multi-ethnic melee, emerging with
modern and often politically minded tales set to rhythms that might dip into
ska, hip-hop or rock. At 10:30 p.m. at Connolly’s Pub, 121 West 45th Street,
Manhattan; (212) 597-5126; $23.75. JON PARELES

BLOODY BEETROOTS From Italy, the Bloody Beetroots make
slap-happy electro house verging on big beat. It’s king-size and, outside the
United States, unusually popular. Even a collaboration with the terminally chill
indie rap outfit the Cool Kids did little to calm this duo, who spin music while
wearing comic-book-character masks and pumping their fists, even more pleased
with themselves than the crowd is. At 3:30 a.m., Webster Hall, 125 East 11th
Street, East Village; (212) 353-1600; websterhall.com; $60. JON CARAMANICA

BUTTHOLE SURFERS Since the early 1980s Gibby Haynes — once
voted accounting student of the year at Trinity University! — has fronted this
Texas outfit, renowned for its perverse live performances and psychedelic
noise-rock. Mr. Haynes and his band mates trade in depravity (they’ve conjured
an array of unprintable song titles), marrying shock-rock tactics (expect smoke,
fire and hallucinatory lighting) with avant-garde experimentalism. The band
hasn’t released an album of new material since 2001, but the songs are
practically incidental to the spectacle. With the Oakland, Calif., band
Lumerians. At 10 p.m., Music Hall of Williamsburg, 66 North Sixth Street,
Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (718) 486-5400; musichallofwilliamsburg.com; $55. AMANDA PETRUSICH

CELEBRATION IN SWING The jazz pianists Cyrus Chestnut and
Benny Green aren’t distracted by the notion that jazz is broken down, refracted,
turned inside out; they believe in jazz as a refined African-American language,
as shaped by perfectionists like Oscar
Peterson, Ahmad Jamal and Tommy Flanagan. They’ll swing through the evening
with the saxophonist Jimmy Heath, the trumpeter Nicholas Payton, the bassist
Dezron Douglas and the drummer Willie Jones III. At Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola,
Broadway at 60th Street, (212) 258-9595; jalc.org; $150 for 7:30 set and three-course menu; $250 for the 11
p.m. show and four-course menu, Champagne toast and party favors. BEN
RATLIFF

YERBABUENA Not to be confused with the Afro-Latin pop band
Yerba Buena, this is the Puerto Rican band from New York led by the singer Tato
Torres. It’s Boricua roots music with some updating and flexibility: percussive
bomba and plena, jíbaro folk songs and deep electric-bass grooves. The band has
been playing it for years at the Nuyorican for years and grown a following. At 9
p.m., Nuyorican Poets Cafe, 236 East Third Street, between Avenue B and C, Lower
East Side; (212) 780-9386; nuyorican.org; $25. BEN RATLIFF

This article has been revised to reflect the following
correction:

Correction: December 28, 2010

A listing on Friday of New Year’s Eve shows recommended by the pop and jazz
critics of The Times misstated the surname of the abolitionist quoted at the end
of a song by the band Titus Andronicus, which plays at the Ridgewood Masonic
Temple in Brooklyn on New Year’s Eve. He was William Lloyd Garrison, not
Gibson.

A version of this schedule appeared in print on December
24, 2010, on page C1 of the New York edition.